Councils do not get enough from Treasury to provide basic services, Salga says
The Treasury’s budget allocations for local government are not enough to enable municipalities to fulfil their constitutional obligations, the South African Local Government Association (Salga) says. Responding to Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba’s medium-term budget policy statement, Salga said that in the current economic conditions‚ it was highly unlikely that all SA’s municipalities could provide basic services to residents. In the budget statement that Gigaba presented in Parliament last week‚ the Treasury’s contribution to local government in equitable share and conditional grants was projected to grow from 9.1% of the total budget in the 2018-19 financial year to 9.3% in the 2020-21 financial year. The equitable share will increase from R62.7bn to R75.7bn in the same period‚ while conditional grants will surge from R46.4bn to R53.3bn. Simphiwe Dzengwa‚ executive director of municipal finances at Salga‚ said: "Local government is the most underfunded sphere despite all the chall...
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